Car Craft – October 2019

Here’s our starting point: The original two-valve, 4.6L Modular V8 has

given good service for more than 230,000 miles, but at just 225 hp to

the flywheel, we can do better. Much better.

34 CAR CRAFT OCTOBER 2019

W

e’ve put in a lot of work to

get to this point. The plan

from the beginning was to

significantly boost the meager 225 hp

our Fake Snake Mustang was putting

out to the rear wheels from the stock

4.6L Modular V8. But before we did

that, we spent considerable time

working on the chassis and suspension

to prepare it so the car could reliably

handle the added horsepower.

That’s basically all done now. Thanks

to BMR subframe braces and other

components, the chassis can handle

tons of horsepower without twisting

up. A complete QA1 suspension, brakes

from Baer, and significantly wider

wheels and tires from American

Muscle have done wonders to the

Mustang’s handling ability. And a new

9-inch from Quick Performance means

we’ll be able to make hard launches

and do burnouts until the wheels fall

off without worry.

We’re finally ready to make some

power.

Originally, we started mapping out

ways to boost the power with the

stock 4.6L Modular V8. Then we

thought about junkyard engine swaps.

But nothing felt quite right until we

talked to some friends at Ford, and

they recommended one of their Coyote

crate engines. At first, a crate engine

may seem like a cop out, and until just

recently we hadn’t had the opportunity

to do much testing with the Coyote.

But that’s changing. Mark Gearhart is

doing some very interesting dyno test-

ing on a Coyote you may have seen in

Starting the Process of Putting a Modern Ford Coyote

Crate Engine Into Car Craft’s 1999 Mustang GT

PROJECT FAKE SNAKE:

THE SWAP BEGINS

➔PROJECT CAR

By Jeff Huneycutt / Photos: Jeff Huneycutt

Ford sells the Coyote crate nearly complete,

but there are a few things you need to

make it work in a swap. Namely, modern

Mustangs use electric power steering. To

add a hydraulic power-steering pump that

would allow us to keep our conventional

power-steering system, we installed a

Vintage Air Front Runner system on the

Coyote. (You can see it on the left side of

this photo.)